KEXP Reviews

This Portland band featuring Johnny Jewel (who’s also the man behind similar-minded Italo disco projects Glass Candy and Desire) gained greater prominence last year thanks to their music’s inclusion in the acclaimed film Drive, the soundtrack of which was heavily influenced by Chromatics’ previous album (2007’s Night Drive). Their latest album (and first in five years) is their strongest release to date, a masterful, epic 16-song set of haunting, night-time synth-pop, with a darkly atmospheric sound combining grainy, buzzing analog synths, cinematic synthesized strings, drowsy, propulsive rhythms, vinyl crackles, foreboding melodies and ethereal vocals into emotionally powerful songs laced with dread and regret. 4/6/2012
- Don Yates